Vise construction



June 1, 1965 A. P. DE FELICE 3,136,705

` l VISE CONSTRUCTION Filed March 11,'1963 INVENTOR AMEDIO E DEFELIGE ATTORN EY United States Patent O 3,136,706 WSE CONSTRUCTION Amedio P. De Felice, Banner Mold & Die C0., 105 Union St., Leominster, Mass. Filed Mar. 11, 1963, Ser. No. 264,342 1 Claim. (Cl. 269-136) This invention relates to a new and improved extra strong and rugged vise for holding parts in extremely fixed stable position and holding them flat and accurately between a pair of special new and improved visey jaw faces, even through the part to be held is not exactly flat or square.

One of the objects of the invention resides in the provision of a vise which'is adapted to be mounted on a worktable or the like and in which there is a fixed jaw and a sliding jaw, said jaws being elongated and parallel and the sliding jaw being slid by adjustable means such as screws threadedly mounted in a fixed but adjustable member extending across the table, whereby the movable jaw can be moved in extremely small increments in order to accurately and firmly hold the workpiece between the jaw faces.

Another object of the invention resides in the provision of the strong rugged vise for firmly holding flat or irregular parts in which the vise jaws are provided with upwardly movable face members, the jaw faces having cam-like surfaces thereon engaging complementary adjacent surfaces on the jaws, these surfaces being arcuate or along arcs of circles, the center of which may be located in a plane parallel to the jaw face members so that when the work being held between the jaw face members is clamped tightly, the respective complementary arcuate surfaces tend to act in the manner of cams and cam the jaw face members downwardly, firmly holding substantially any kind of workpiece, with no possibility of being forced up out of the vise.

The invention further relates to arrangements and combinations of parts which will be hereinafter described and more particularly set forth in the appended claim;

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in which PIG. 1 is a plan view showing the construction of the vise, part being broken away;

FIG. 2 is a view in side elevation thereof, and

FlG. 3 is an end View, looking in the direction of arrow 3 in FIG. 2.

ln the form of the invention illustrated, there is an underlying worktable or plate which as shown is square or rectangular and has a at machined upper surface. This plate has side edge ribs or projections 12 thereon at two opposite sides thereof. The plate is provided with several holes therethrough such as at 14 for the reception of bolts securing the plate to a machine base or table, and the plate also has several rows of bored and tapped holes such as at 16 for a purpose to be described.

The ribs or projections 12 provide a pair of undercut shoulders 2li, one at each side edge of the plate. At the front edge of the plate there is a fixed jaw generally indicated at 22. This jaw may be as long as the width of the plate 12. The fixed jaw may be bolted in position as by bolts 24 extending upwardly through plate 19 and threaded into holes 26 in the fixed jaw 22. The jaw 22 is provided with a longitudinal depending square edged portion 28 fitting into a like slot extending parallel to the front edge of the plate.

law 22 has a downwardly and inwardly curved front face 30 against which is fitted a jaw face member 32 having a rear surface 34 `correspondingly curved to that at 3i) and jaw face member 32 also has a forward flat "lce upright or vertical front surface 36 for gripping the piece to be held in the vise. T-head bolts or screws 3S can be utilized to secure the jaw face member 32 with relation to the fixed jaw 22. As shown, bolts 38 have threaded ends 49 in the jaw face member, but the shank of the bolt is located in a hole 42 larger than the shank so that the bolts and the member 32 can move vertically slightly. Springs 44 are utilized to tend to hold the member 32 in raised position, see the dotted lines in FIG. 2.

The curves at 30 and 34 are on the arc of a circle whose center is in or lower than the top of the plate 19. Therefore in general these surfaces incline down to the left in FIG. 2. With the jaw face member 32 in its raised, dotted position, as held by the spring, a force to the left applied normal to vertical surface 36, causes the jaw face member to be powerfully wedged or cammed down.

The movable jaw comprises in general a member 46 generally complementary to jaw 22 and having a similarly fashioned inwardly and downwardly curved face 48 of like extent. law 46 is also provided with a jaw face member 50 having a correspondingly curved surface 52 abutting the surface 48 and similarly held in position by screws 54 or the like which extend from therear face 56 vof the movable jaw into the jaw face member 50. The large holes 58 allow vertical motion of jaw face member 50. Springs 60 act in like manner to springs 44. Y

YThere are no fasteners securing the movable jaw 46 to the base plate. The movable jaw has end pieces 62, 64 which are secured thereto in any desired way, these end pieces acting as side guides against the side edges of the ribs 12. The end pieces are provided with inwardly directed feet 66 extending under the shoulders 20 and guiding the movable jaw accurately to and from the fixed jaw.

An elongated block 68 is provided with T-head fastenings or socket screws 70 which extend through the block for removable threaded reception in threaded holes 16, these being arranged on the surface of the plate in a regular aligned series of rows as clearly shown in FG. 1 so that the block 68 can be positioned where desired in a rough adjustment to and from the fixed jaw.

The block 68 is provided with -a series of horizontal fore-and-aft threaded holes therein at 74 for the reception of the threaded screws 76, all of which are parallel and which extend through block 68 and into engagement with the rear edge 56 of the movable jaw 46. Each screw 76 has a square head '7S on itv or other means by which a tool may be applied to the sameV to turn it in order to adjust movable vise jaw 46 to clamp a workpiece between the faces of the jaw face members. Where the adjustment is too great for the lengths of the screws, the entire movable jaw and block 68 are moved from one row of tapped holesto another so that a piece of work almost as large as the surface of the plate 12 can be accommodated in the vise.

It will be seen therefore that this vise presents a rugged construction which will veryaccurately hold flat and irregular pieces extremely firmly and the more the jaws Y are forced together the snugger the jaw face members will be clamped with respect to the workpiece. Under no circumstances can the work pop up out of the vise because of the camming actionof the curved surfaces at 30 and 4S which tend to bear down more on Vthe workpiece the greater the clamping pressure. The

rasante herein disclosed, otherwise than as set forth in the claim, but what I claim is:

A vise comprising a generally at plate, a fixed vise jaw-mounted on said plate, means securing said jaw in iixed position, an arcuate surface on the jaw, a separate jaw face for said fixed jaw, said jaw face having an larcuate surface corresponding to that of the jaw, said arcuate surfaces being in sliding contact with each other, and a substantially ilat work holding surface. on the jaw face, said arcuate surfaces having an elongated center of curvature parallel to the at plate, means loosely mounting Ysaid separate jaw face on said fixed jaw providing for a limited motion of said jaw face on the jaw to and from the plate, resilient means on said plate engaging the jaw face and normally tending to vurge the same away from the plate, said jaw face mounting means holding the jaw face with its arcuate surface in close association with respect to the arcuate surfacegof said vise jaw, Y

a -movable jaw, means mounting said movable jaw on the plate for motion toward and from the fixed jaw said jaws being substantially paralleLsad-mov'- able jaw having an arcuate surface thereon, a separate jaw face having an arcuate surface corresponding to the arcuate surface on the movable jaw, means loosely holding the last-named jaw face lto the movable jaw with their arcuate surfaces in contact, providing for limited sliding motion of the jaw face on the movable jaw corresponding to the relative motion of the movable jaw face on the xed jaw, resilient means tending to move the jaw face on the movable jaw in a direction away from the plate, the jaw face having a work-holding surface, the arcuate surfaces of the fixed jaw and its jaw face and the movable jaw and its jaw face presenting concavities` facing toward each other, said concavities being more closely spaced at the portions of the respectivey jaws remote from the plate and gradually increasingV in the distance between them in a direction toward the plate, means to move the movable jaw toward the fixed jaw to clamp a Workpiece between the jaw faces under pressure which isexerted on the workpiece at the -jaw face engaged sides Vthereof in a direction parallel with the motion of the movable jaw, said pressure reacting on the jaw faces tending to move the latter downwardly toward the plate and thereby urging the workpiece clamped therebetween into a rrn abutting contact withY the plate.. y

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,457,307. 6/23 Kerns 269-208 X 2,595,699 5/52` Petersen 269-264 X 2,868,091 1/59 Du Bois 269-208 3,024,521 3/62 Polk 269-221 X i ROBERT C. RIORDON, Primary Examiner.

30 FRANK SUSKO, Examiner.y 

